I thought about all of our life together. "I love you, Farley. If we have to die tonight, I'm glad we're together."

"I love you, Ella. We only step into Elohaia. The 6th will send someone else. We have to have hope, Ella." He gave a sigh and shivered. Another shiver. I rubbed his arms.

Shivers became rhythmic. I looked at his face, lit by light that somehow came from black glass walls. His ears and the tip of his nose were white. The rest of him was gray. Regen. He's going into regen. In this cold, he'll die fast.

I kept talking. I want him to have the comfort of my voice, if his head doesn't hurt too bad. "What is this place? I never saw a building with one empty room, and open to the sky like that! Oh, that must be Mican's ship. He's running something like a vaporizer. What's he trying to get? Vaporizer progs analyze things, and they can port it to alt storage. Sand is vanishing, and there's black obsidian left, like when ships used to leave it in spaceports, and we still see melted sand obsidian in old spaceports.

"Oh, he makes me mad! I wish his engine would just fall out!"

I was watching his stupid ship. Suddenly, his engine, an engine very much like the one the scientists demonstrated in the festival that day, I saw it. Vibration began.

What are you doing? I'll kill you!

A crack formed in the side of his gray metal ship! It grew wider.

Stop it! I'll kill you! I'll kill--

The crack was just wide enough. The engine fell out and the black obsidian cracked, too! A crack spread until the room we're in—the wall cracked! Boom! His ship fell! Black obsidian cracked, and engine and ship fell through!

I pulled Farley back. Expected glass shards to finish us! But the wall slid down and was smooth. A panel behind me on the floor slid open.

The other walls wavered. I pulled my husband into the space and a ramp slid us down! It wasn't a steep slope, just enough that my jeans slid, and it made a wide spiral.

At the bottom was a room I knew well from Sigan Mas. More than once, I went in the biome storage to check on our men. Before me, a panel of glass had Biome Maintenance Facility in Elshar script. It had its own? And Pirad didn't get it?

There was another glass panel. On the other side of it, Mican stared at me with his eyes black. "I'll—kill you—" Pinned by half his ship. On top of half his body.

But the way to that Clean Room was open. All I have to do is tap in a DS code and I'm in. I have to shatter that server!

Despite all the noise, Farley had a strong regen going.
"I wish Farley was okay!"

Nothing. Maybe I'm not being specific enough? "I wish Farley was completely healed so he can help me!"

That didn't work. We're still going to die! But, I'll take this server with me!

I carefully slid my husband onto the floor. Hoped that wouldn't stop his regen! But there are supplies in that room.

I kissed Farley's most forehead. "I'll be right back, Love. Don't be scared. I have to check the progs."

Regen looks scary. Farley didn't give a sign that he heard. His arms and legs were tightly rolled up, and he was dark gray. My jeans were full of dark green sweat. Yellow's bad enough. Green is a sign that death isn't long.

When I stood up, all the sparkles glittered in a cloud. Mican smiled, the snake. He didn't look good. Also gray. Wasn't struggling. But he faked his death once. He can do it again.

I tapped the code onto a metal square in the glass. The panel slid open.

Shelves were empty. I found one blanket and went back. Put it over my husband. It got hot. It won't be when I come back.

I went back in. Normally a biome tech puts on a suit like a hazmat suit, so she doesn't contaminate the biomes. Biomes are glass jars with algae that stores data. One sneeze is enough to bring it down, not just a server, but a Hub installation, if it's in the same facility.

I didn't suit up. Opened the next panel with the tapped code. It slid open.

The other half of Mican's ship crashed through this wall and toppled hundreds of glass jars the size of my head. Maybe his ship did the job for us.

To my left, I had just enough room to slip behind a shelf full of biomes that broke. Glass shards were everywhere. There's no protection for my feet that'll stop 'em. I waved up a menu and had a vaporizer run. Made it start where I needed to walk.

I followed the white light, and the floor got hot! I'd never run these progs, but our men shared memories of doing this. It looked like a facility after an earthquake and our team had to clean it up!

A group of mechs, a kind of biological robot, spread out to gather the algae to perform dead cell work. Didn't want that to happen!

But I continued on to find the server. It'll be a cube shape.

At the back of this room was another one. A blue cube.

We never did Hub maints. Or had to open the main server! So I had to just figure this out. There's got to be a way to open it. The cube was half my height, even with my hip. Long as my arm on each side. And smooth glass. No metal plate to catch a code.

I carefully looked at each side. Nothing.

Maybe brute force. All the mechs are working the first room. Nothing's broken in here. Yet.

Rows of biomes neatly sat with clear tubes going from one to the next. They look open, but it's all capped off with containments.

I lifted one and threw it at the cube. It stopped and floated back into place. Maints are automated here? That's a problem!

So, I pulled tubes out. Stuck my hand in and stirred. Lights flickered. Went down the line and shoved my hand into each one. Knocked one off and it broke! So why couldn't I damage the server?

A mech came in and I dropped a biome on it. Biome media leaked out where the spider-like legs joined.

Another one came. As they came, I dropped biomes, until I was shaky and sweaty and half the room was full of glass shards and blue goo.

I waved up the progs again. Studied. I could get a prog screen to write. I shoved the nearest biome onto the floor and sat on the shelf. What can I do?

The lights were flickering, so I did some damage. This is a weapons facility. Can I design a weapon?

I thought of Mican. He's an enemy. But there's a security prog.

If I activate it, it might stop me. No go. But why isn't it running?

I looked in there where I left Mican. All these walls are clear. His ship's gone. He's gone. Now I felt nervous! Did it repair his ship?

How big is this place? I opened the next door. And the next. This is much larger than any facility I ever saw! Even on Elshar Mashai, where the Alliance HQ is! The thought came to me, Unified servers are much larger than Alliance, and they have extra capacity to be expanded. What if they expanded it beyond a normal server, or even a Hub? Numbers ran through my head.

Servers have limits. You overload them, your server goes down! I ran every prog on the menu, then wrote a very bad prog, like a beginner. A prog to manufacture. Maintenance mechs. A first aid mech to carry Farley for me. I sent it to him. Suits. Biomes for replacement. And data seeding for the new biomes. But, when you write those kinds of progs, mistakes will kill the data instead of fixing your problem. I want to kill data!

So I had the mechs clean the biomes. There are very strong sterilizing chemicals that will kill any algae, no matter how it's bred to resist that. I wrote it as if I were writing it for Esteerr. That's about the most hostile environment for living servers known. And I had to do this in one of my classes. The simulation was, what if you were captured by a slaver and had to bring down his slaver server? They are Alliance. They use our progs. How would you do it?

I wrote it as I did for that class, and I was added to the curriculum because of how I wrote it. If I can recreate it from memory! I worked on it for weeks and had access to a lot of databases on how to do parts of it. Diplomats have to know some of the same stuff biome engineers study, for operative work. You learn a bit of everything.

The first aid mech came back with Farley. He wasn't shaking. "Farley, you okay, Love?" I tried to lift his arm. Stasis. I didn't want to let go but I can't use the prog screen with frostbite!

I had a good cry. Wrote a lock prog for the door.

At times, I just wanted to give up! But, I have to finish. So Mican can't win. My utter hatred of Mican pushed me on. One routine at a time. A few lines of code to do one task. That's how any prog is written. Sometimes you can't see the big picture--

But, in my telepathy, I saw the lines. Connecting lines between one module of code and another. They have colors. This is like what happened with the healer progs! I can see the big picture!

I made a first aid mech to hold me and a warm containment so I could hold my husband. He's frozen. Farley died. He can't feel me near him. But like a kid with a surreal teddy bear, I had to have him near me.

I woke up from a dream that Farley and I walked in a garden. It was so real!

I didn't search the facility to look for Mican. It's a mistake. Know it is. But I worked on the prog. I knew where I needed to go with this. Saw the connections, the most part of the prog. I can do this. For Farley. So Mican can't win!

Finally, I got enough written to test. I waved. Nothing. Nothing?